Frampton Birds 8th June

 I made a third visit to Frampton on the last day of our Lincolnshire holiday and concentrated in the morning on the birdlife, especially the Sedge Warblers and Reed Bunting in the reeds, the Spoonbills feeding, Sand Martins at their artificial bank, a visiting Red-crested Pochard, Lapwings and Little Ringed Plover.

Marsh Harriers and Cuckoo at Lackford

Ellie chose to visit Lackford with me today on her day off, hoping to see a Kingfisher - no luck with that wish but we did have great views of Marsh Harriers, Heron, Egret, Lapwing in the Irises etc and, best of all, a really good view of a male Cuckoo, who conveniently then landed in a tree and proceeded to call just to confirm the ID. A lot of Common Blue Damselflies and a quite late Orange-tailed Mining bee

Welney WWT on a Grey Day

Some images taken at Welney on a very grey misty day on Saturday. I enjoyed trying to portray the flooded Ouse Washes with ducks (Pochard, Mallard), Geese, Lapwings and Whooper Swans.

Titchwell RSPB Reserve Before the Rain

 Yesterday the RPS Nature Group managed a shortish morning's bird photography before the rain set in which was fine as most people were journeying considerable distances back home. There were very large flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover settling on the scrapes in beautiful light showing off their colourful but very good camouflage plumage in with Teal, Dunlin, Wigeon etc. Down on the beach there weren't the expected numbers of waders, certainly compared with the huge flocks at Hunstanton, but most of the species were there in small numbers. Here a couple of Bar-Tailed Godwits and an Oystercatcher with mussel. A lone Black-winged Stilt with a ring (?escapee) posed beautifully. 

A Few More Birds from Slimbridge

A few more birds seen on our RPS trip to Slimbridge. The light was very dull so not a great deal of 'life' in the photos but great to see up to 10 Cranes all together down on the banks of the Severn and flying. They have had a very successful year breeding-wise here. Lots of passage migrants on South Lake including Black-tailed Godwits and also parties of Avocets and Lapwings stirring up the mud. The ducks are in eclipse still but recognisable Shovellers looking as grumpy as usual and Teal.